An Irish Catholic bishop opposed to
allowing gays to marry said Monday that God asks gays to “reserve
sexual relationships to marriage.”

Irish voters will take up the issue of
same-sex marriage on May 22.

Elphin Bishop Kevin Doran argued that
voters should reject the question because gay couples do not
procreate.

“What the church asks of people who
are homosexual by orientation is exactly the same as what the church
asks of people who are heterosexual, that they reserve sexual
relationships to marriage,” Doran
said during a radio interview. “Now, it's a completely
different question to say that we believe marriage is between a man
and a woman.”

When Doran was asked if being gay was
“as God intended,” he compared it to a disability.

“That would be to suggest that some
people are born with Down's syndrome or spina bifida, that that was
what God intended,” Doran answered. “The thing about it is, I
can't see it in the mind of God.”

When the host pointed out that “sexual
orientation is not a disability,” Doran replied: “Well, I'm not
entering into that.”

“I'm just saying it would be wrong to
suggest that everything that happens, happens because God intended
it. If that were the case, we'd be talking about a very different
kind of God,” he said.